Past Participants Speak

Vickie Graham O’Neal (SPI 2010, 2011), Turning Point Partners, US

"I have learned a lot, but now my questions are racing and my thirst for life-saving answers is greater, but I see with new eyes.”

Matthew Kollie (SPI 2010), Pastor, Liberia

“I am extremely grateful for the opportunity I have had to study at SPI and to interact with practitioners from all over the world – people whose voices and faces have made an indelible imprint on my mind. This has indeed been a great learning process for me and a time of frank mutual exchanges across barriers.”

“…it is very difficult to come for long periods of time to study. But if you are a very busy executive or a person that just wants to come for further training to get some more skills, to share, to learn from other people, SPI is the best place to come.”

Bunthea Keo (SPI 2010), UN African Union Mission in Sudan, Cambodia

“The belief in working together to build a better world is reflected in the main goal of SPI – to bring together practitioners from around the world to share experiences, knowledge, and common understanding on how we all can work together to build peace through the knowledge that we have gained from SPI.”

Cole Parke (CJP MA 2012)

“SPI is a place where Nobel Prize nominees sit down beside stay-at-home dads; where Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and atheists break bread together; where Palestinians and Israelis raise their voices in unison… It’s a place where the impossible is case aside and a new dream is born – a dream that says peace, justice, and unity are possible.”

“When I thought of a place where I could replenish spiritually, mentally, and emotionally, I thought of SPI…It is always good to come back to a familiar place of peace and quiet, and at the same time, a place of stimulation and motivation to keep going.”

Suraya Sadeed (current CJP MA student), founder, Help the Afghan Children, US citizen born in Afghanistan

“[People from other countries] have the very same problems we have – the constant struggle for better government, more active civil society, and better cooperation between the two.”